Girl forced to watch her father/brother killed by Boko Haram tells her story

15 year old Deborah Peter, a Chibok indigene who now resides in Virginia, USA, was at the Capitol Hill, D.C yesterday May 21st, where she narrated her experience in the hands of Boko Haram. Deborah was at the US congress in her capacity as a Boko haram survivor, to lend her voice to the #bringbackourgirls campaign, as members of the congress debated on how to effectively win the war against the radical Islamic sect that abducted over 200 girls in Chibok on April 14th.

Deborah told the story of how her father, a Christian pastor who had been asked to deny his faith and her brother were both killed in a singular attack on the evening of Dec 22 2011 by three members of Boko haram. She said the men shot her dad 3 times on the chest and as they deliberated on whether to kill her brother, her dad breathed his last when he heard gun shots fired at his son, Caleb.

Deborah said she was then asked her to lie in between their corpses. She laid there until the next morning when she was rescued by a local Pastor who paid for her to be transported out of the region. Sadly, the pastor who assisted her was also killed in 2013 by the sect men. 

During her presentation, Deborah held up a paper sign reading “#BringBackMySisters” for video cameras and photographers. 

“I decided to tell the world my story when the Chibok girls were taken because everyone needs to know how horrible Boko Haram is. They kill innocent people who never hurt them. I want the world to understand what happened to me. I hope the kidnapped Chibok girls will take courage from my story, and know more of what God says, and know what it means to stand strong in the face of bad people.” she said

Deborah was asked to describe how she felt about Boko Haram after all she had been through and she replied "It’s a hard question. I think they’re bad. I can’t judge them. The Bible said do not judge.”